Are Majestic Bison Doomed to Feedlot Life?

Years ago when I used to live in northern New Mexico in a small Airstream trailer huddled up close to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, I had the great privilege of having a herd of bison as my neighbors. The majestic creatures grazed a huge expanse of land belonging to Taos Pueblo.

While I was living there, I knew of a few projects that were trying to bring bison back to the land on northern New Mexico Pueblos, and that an InterTribal Bison Cooperative was working across the country on similar efforts. This is no small feat considering bison were slaughtered to near extinction, decreasing in number from an estimated 60 million across the U.S. to only a few hundred.

It's exciting to see bison returning to their natural habitat, but unfortunately, some folks have other plans for the animals now that their populations have improved. I was shocked to read recently that bison are now being moved to feedlots. Andrew Gunther of the Animal Welfare Institute writes about seeing bison, which are undomesticated animals, crammed into feedlots. "They were fed an unnatural corn- and grain-based diet that is not only alien to them but which leads to unbalanced conditions in their digestive systems, which then acts as a haven for E. coli O157:H7," he wrote. "They looked neither strong nor majestic, but confused and defeated."

Apparently the healthfulness and wild flavor of bison meat is becoming popular — a little too popular. Although it would seem that if you make a wild animal trade its open range and forage diet for the feedlot and a corn-based diet, you're sure to lose the wild taste. It's a self-defeating system, right?

So, it would seem to me. Gunther writes that this situation puts bison at risk for diseases in the same way as feedlot cows. And sure enough, 66,000 pounds of bison meat were recently recalled for E. coli, which just goes to show how important it is to know where your food comes from. Don't assume that eating bison may be healthier than other types of meat unless you know where and how that animal was raised.

I, for one, am happy to enjoy bison from a distance. I'd rather watch them roam than eat them. But if you are going to eat bison, make sure it's not a feedlot knock-off of the real thing.

Photo credit: Alan Vernon